By: LISA R. WILSON

After a New York attorney general’s office launched an investigation based upon hundreds of complaints against UnitedHealth Group, a settlement reached on Tuesday ordered the health insurance company to pay $50 million dollars for overcharging millions of Americans for health care.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo says Ingenix, a research firm owned by UnitedHealth Group, has been manipulating claim numbers so insurance companies pay less. “Americans have been under-reimbursed to the tune of at least hundreds of millions of dollars,” he says. Other major insurers also use Ingenix, including Aetna, CIGNA and WellPoint/Empire BlueCross BlueShield.

“This is a huge scam that affected hundreds of millions of Americans (who were) ripped off by their health insurance companies,” says Cuomo. “This was unethical, and it robbed vulnerable patients of insurance reimbursements they deserved.”

In a statement, UnitedHealth Group told TODAY: “We respectfully disagree with the New York Attorney General’s findings that we manipulated data or that our ownership of Ingenix was a conflict of interest. We agreed to his settlement because it was an effective way to address any perceived conflict of interest.”

Cuomo says he’s now investigating other health insurance companies. In addition, some patients plan to bring a class action lawsuit against UnitedHealth Group.

A class action is a case brought against a company whose actions have damaged a group of people in a similar way. A single person who has been injured may bring a class action on behalf of everyone who has been harmed. However, after the action has been started, other injured people can join the class action lawsuit (become class members).

Do you feel you have a claim as part of a class action? An experienced Lead Counsel class action attorney can advise you on whether filing a class action or an individual lawsuit is best for your case, as well as advise you on what steps you need to take.